It has been years since we've been able to pluck the various colored pikmin out of the ground and command them to pick up fruits, garbage, spaceship parts, and battle monstrous insects. The game looks absolutely gorgeous on the superior hardware of the Wii U, and includes some new features such as a map and radar system using the GamePad, a squad of Olimar's ensigns to perform multiple tasks at once, and even a new pikmin with a boulder-shaped body able to break down the heftiest barriers. As soon as I saw the squad-based gameplay, I thought for sure Nintendo would reveal a multiplayer feature, but sadly there wasn't a peep, and looking at the official game summary page, the single player listing brought a tear to my eye. There will likely be online social connectivity through Miiverse (the Wii U's home page and social hub), but at the moment cooperative and competitive gameplay is absent, which keeps this Shigeru Miyamoto gem off the top spot.

LEGO City: Undercover brings a whole new spin to the series. Most other franchises built with the construction blocks are from popular movie series, but it would be best to describe this Nintendo exclusive as LEGO meets Grand Theft Auto. It's an open world-adventure that lets you switch costumes to play as a firefighter, construction worker, or even robber, collect many different vehicles, and explore the surroundings at your leisure. The GamePad also looks to be well integrated into the experience, acting as your communication device, a scanner for identifying criminals, placing waypoints on the controller displayed map, and likely many other uses. It has the classic humor expected from the LEGO brand and is fully voice acted, a welcome new addition to the series. Frankly, It just looks awesome, and will likely big a big seller to all kinds of gamers.

BySean Engemann
Contributing Writer
Date: June 6, 2012

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central.*